SPECIAL 
MISSIONARY PREPARATION 


BY 
EDWARD WARREN CAPEN, Ph. D. 


Organizing Secretary 


The Hartford School of Missions 


HARTFORD 
CONNECTICUT 


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Special Missionary Preparation 


HE question of the preparation needed for securing 
greater missionary efficiency was brought into prom- 
inence by the report of Commission V. to the World 
Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in June, 1910. 
So great was the interest excited that the leading Mission 
Boards of Great Britain have created a Board of Mis- 
sion Studies, with a paid secretary, to take up this whole 
matter, and similar action has been taken by the Mission 
Boards in the United States and Canada. 

The concensus of opinion on the part of missionaries 
and board secretaries is that the preparation now required 
is inadequate and that the standards for appointment must 
be raised. This makes the subject of special missionary 
preparation of vital importance to all who purpose or even 
hope to spend their lives in the mission field. 

Four questions concerning this special missionary 
preparation naturally arise : 


I. Why is it needed > 
I]. What should it include > 
Ill. Who need it > 
IV. When and where should it be secured ? 


I. Why ? 


For two reasons: 
1. The new environment. 


a. Education is raising the intelligence of the 
people among whom the missionary works. 


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The Christian school is brought into com- 
petition with secular schools, which often 
have finer equipment and even better 
trained teachers. The missionary - finds 
around him a growing body of men who 
are trained in the thought of the West 
and who are familiar with the vices as well 
as the virtues of the West from which 
the missionary comes. 


b. A new industry, which is animated by the 
materialistic spirit and adopts western meth- 
ods, is producing unfortunate industrial con- 
ditions. ‘These increase the difficulties of 
Christianizing Oriental life and complicate 
the missionary problem. 


c. Reform movements are springing up under 
leaders who are sincerely desirous of im- 
proving the conditions of life, but who are 
often visionary and inefficient in their efforts. 


d. A new nationalistic spirit is found in the 
chief mission lands. This leads to polit- 
ical unrest, to jealousy of foreign influence 
and to an emphasis, with modifications, 
upon old customs, institutions and beliefs. 
Keen resentment is aroused by an unsym- 
pathetic attitude even on the part of the 
missionary. 


The new missionary policies. Partly because 
of this new spirit of nationality and partly because 
the development of the native church makes a 
change possible, the missionary movement must 
add to its original and permanent work of evan- 
gelism and the organization of churches, the work 
of education, of authorship and of leadership in 
intellectual and institutional life. Success in such 
work calls for a higher degree of specialized 
training than where the missionary is almost the 
only responsible worker. 


II. 


W hat ? 


All special missionary preparation presupposes 
the proper physical, intellectual, ethical and spiritual 
qualifications. It should have as its foundation the 
best college, university, and professional training pos- 
sible. In addition, it should always include the fol- 
lowing seven subjects : 


1. The Missionary Message. Knowledge of this 
is the most fundamental necessity of every mis- 
sionary, whether theologically trained or not. It 
includes familiarity with the Bible and with the 
essential truths of Christianity. A missionary is 
worse than useless unless he has a vital Christian 
message. 


2. The History, Institutions, Customs, Thought and 
Religion of the People of a Specific Mission Field. 
Without a sympathetic appreciation of the peo- 
ple, their past and their point of view, great 
efficiency is impossible. 


3. Pedagogy and Psychology. Mission education 
cannot hold its own unless it is under thoroughly 
trained teachers. Nearly every missionary either 
has some connection with educational work or is 
dealing with people who have many of the char- 
acteristics of childhood. In either case a knowl- 
edge of the science and art of teaching is needed. 


4. Comparative Religion. Efficiency in presenting 
the Christian message may be greatly increased 
by a knowledge of the common elements in the 
religious thought of the race, the highest attain- 
ments of the non-Christian religious thinkers, and 
the ways in which Christianity meets needs which 
no other religion can satisfy. 


5. Sociology. The work of the missionary neces- 
sarily has an influence upon life, customs, and 
institutions ; he is working in the midst of great 
social changes, and he needs to understand these 
in order that he may be able to relate his work 
to them. 


6. The History and Science of Missions. For 
nineteen centuries the Church has been carrying 
on missionary work. ‘The lessons of this experi- 
ence should be placed as the disposal of the 
missionary, who needs a broader view of the 
missionary problem than is obtained in any one 
field. ‘This is the testimony of missionaries. 


7. Language. Investigations indicate not only 
that the learning of the vernacular is the bug-bear 
of the missionary but that this is a point at which 
he falls short of a reasonable expectation. In 
pronunciation, idiom and vocabulary it is the 
exceptional missionary who can express himself 
freely even upon all phases of Christian truth, or 
who can be heard with pleasure by a scholar. 
At the time when English can be more widely 
used, the people’s toleration of imperfect speech 
is lessening. In most fields the language is taught 
in the good old way, in disregard of all recent 
progress in the art of teaching languages scientifi- 
cally. Missionaries in China declare it quite 
possible to save from six months to a year in pre- 
paring the missionary to take up his work. 
Phonetics, the scientific understanding of the 
structure of language and new methods of teach- 
ing have revolutionized this department in Europe 
and should be applied at once to the missionary’s 
preparation. 


Ill. Who? 


Every missionary candidate needs this prepara- 
tion. Missionary authorities hold that the time is 
rapidly approaching when such special missionary 
preparation will be required of practically every 
candidate, just as now the leading boards are 
demanding a full university and professional training. 
The schools of America train students to meet 
American problems in an American environment. 
The problems of India are as different as its climate 
or its social organization and no one can attain real 
efficiency without special preparation. The same is 
true of each mission country and for no one field is 
the training identical with that for any other. Special 
preparation is needed for each country and each 
branch of work. 


IV. When and Where ? 


The preparation of the missionary does not end 
when he sails from the home port. In a sense it has 
just begun, for all his life he should be working to 
get a better mastery of the thought, language and 
customs of the people around him. But whenever 
possible, he should make sure of laying the founda- 
tions deep and strong, before active service begins. 
Unless this is done before he reaches his field, the 
pressure of work and his lack of preparation as to 
the methods of such study will prevent his accom- 
plishing much. He will either neglect it or flounder 
aimlessly. “This means that the foundation work for 
the study of the language and the field should be 
laid here. As regards all the other subjects, the 
bulk of the study must be done at home or it will 
remain undone. ‘This applies to the history and 


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methods of mission work, and to comparative relig- 
ion, sociology, psychology, and pedagogy. The 
missionary should never cease to be a student of the 
Bible but he should acquire before sailing the 
appetite for it and should learn the best methods. 


Conclusion. 


Every one who contemplates devoting his life to 
the work of foreign missions should aim at securing 
as broad a culture as possible, especially emphasiz- 
ing those subjects included in special missionary 
preparation, upon which he can secure courses of 
study. In addition, he should arrange to take a full 
year of specialized graduate work, during which 
deficiencies can be made good and a broad foun- 
dation laid for an understanding of the peculiar 
problems of the country in which he expects to 
spend his life. Until recently this special prepara- 
tion has been impossible, but now there are a few 
centres at which it can be secured, and with their 
facilities and the opportunities they offer each pro- 
spective missionary should become acquainted. 


